Droid Today

Posts Tagged verizon

Fragmentation in Android OS Market

Dec 12

Posted by Brian Kelley in Android Development, Android Phones | Comments off

PC World has a perspective on the most recent Android update made available by Google and pushed to Motorola Droid owners. This could be one not-so-subtle issue that may keep software houses from focusing development efforts on the Android operating system platform and instead opt for the Apple iPhone platform.

On Friday, Sprint posted a Twitter message saying its HTC Hero and Samsung Moment phones will get Android 2.0 in the first half of 2010.

The Sprint announcement points to a potential fragmentation issue that some experts worry might plague Android. Already there are phones on the market running Android 1.5, 1.6 and 2.0. The problem with having many versions in the market at the same time is that applications may have trouble working smoothly across all the OSes.

That makes the platform less attractive to the developers Google relies on to build interesting applications, and to end-users who may find that an application they download doesn’t work on their phone.

PCW Article

Share this post
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • Reddit
  • Technorati
  • StumbleUpon
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • email

Tags: , , ,

Sen. Amy Klobuchar introduces bill after Verizon hikes early termination fees

Dec 4

Posted by Brian Kelley in Android Phones, General Technology | Comments off

Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar (D) introduced a bill to congress today that would restrict the amount cell phone carriers could charge for early termination fees when consumers choose to terminate their cell phone contracts early. Klobuchar’s bill would mandate that termination fees be pro-rated from the date of the contract start through the end of the contract.

“Changing your wireless provider shouldn’t break the bank,” Klobuchar said. “Forcing consumers to pay outrageous fees bearing little to no relation to the cost of their handset devices is anti-consumer and anti-competitive.”

Personally, I really like this senator. She has been on the front lines of consumer protection and her legislative efforts have been ramped up since the financial crisis that started in October 2008, pushing for a full and complete accounting of the unpopular TARP bill (troubled asset relief program). She’s a “populist” and that’s what I like about her. However, there’s a decent argument to be made for consumer choice and the intervention of government in the private sector. In the comments section of the article link below is an impassioned reader comment that presents a reasonable argument.

Read the rest of this entry »

Share this post
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • Reddit
  • Technorati
  • StumbleUpon
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • email

Tags: , , , ,

Paul Thurrott: AT&T laughed right out of court

Dec 3

Posted by Brian Kelley in Android Phones, General Technology | Comments off

AT&T has had it’s “irreprable harm” lawsuit against Verizon dismissed from the Federal Circuit court in Atlanta, Georgia today.

The court did just that. And while that may seem like bad news for AT&T, the truth is, no one was ever fooled by the company’s legal grandstanding.

ATT Lawsuit

Paul’s Wininfo Home | Article

Supersite for Windows


Share this post
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • Reddit
  • Technorati
  • StumbleUpon
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • email

Tags: , ,

Google now providing instructions for Droid “high quality” video flub

Nov 22

Posted by Brian Kelley in Android Phones | Comments off

One puzzling nuance of the Verizon Droid from the day it was released to the public is the need to change settings in the native Youtube application to display high quality video as opposed to pixelated, low-quality versions of the same stream. In the eyes of several reviewers this appeared to be a bit of an odd oversight. Why would a phone, whose resolution is a crystal clear  854 x 480 pixels, be configured to show Youtube videos at the default 320 x 240 resolution when it’s reasonably easy to configure for the much sharper 640 x 360 high quality resolution?

Google now appears to be sending email messages to new Droid owners instructing them how to change the resolution of videos on the fly. It’s obvious that the point of the messge is to provide a handful of “How-To” video tutorials for other functionality on the phone, but the seemingly-subtle configuration change is what stands out like a sore thumb in the email.

The message:
Read the rest of this entry »

Share this post
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • Reddit
  • Technorati
  • StumbleUpon
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • email

Tags: , , , , ,

Were you an early adopter of Droid? ETF fees still $175

Nov 20

Posted by Brian Kelley in Android Phones | 1 Comment

Marquerite Reardon over at CNet has an interesting overview of the ins-and-outs of early termination fees and one interesting point is worth noting. If you were one of those who ran out and purchased a droid within the first week of the Verizon / Motorola Droid release, the early termination fees — should you decide to cancel your Verizon contract — are still $175 and not the $350 that Verizon has instituted now.

Read the article on CNet

Share this post
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • Reddit
  • Technorati
  • StumbleUpon
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • email

Tags: , ,

Push update for Droid issues due early December

Nov 16

Posted by Brian Kelley in Android Phones | Comments off

From a leaked Verizon support document, it appears an update for several problems with the Verizon Droid phone will be pushed December 11th. The fixes appear to address a small number of issues that users are facing with Active Sync / Exchange, Text messaging, and the camera.

Having used the Droid for a little over a week, my personal experience is that stability of some platform components (if not the base OS) is somewhat questionable. I’ve experienced issues with multiple native applications (apps that shipped with the phone) that stop responding, some applications never opening to the same window twice, and even the unthinkable — having the entire phone / screen become completely unresponsive after hanging up a call forcing me to have to reboot (!) the phone. Of course, in the complex world of software development, you can’t fix what you can’t duplicate consistently and certain issues you can’t even identify, so what everyone is calling “quirks” that I and others experience will probably never be fixed. (To be honest, I’m quite amazed that functionality impaired by stability issues has gotten so little coverage in the blogosphere.)

Click the link below to see the leaked documents out of Verizon (apparently scooped by Phandroid as noted by the shameless watermark).

Share this post
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • Reddit
  • Technorati
  • StumbleUpon
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • email

Tags: , ,

Droid sales analysis all over the map

Nov 12

Posted by Brian Kelley in Android Phones | Comments off

Here’s an article at Yahoo Tech that underscores the dizzying range of analysts’ opinions of Motorola Droid sales from the launch weekend. I mentioned here that you could find any opinion to support your personal view of success for sales depending on where you look. Apparently I’m not alone in that thinking.

Read the Yahoo article

That said, a Citibank analyst told Bloomberg that while the Droid’s estimated numbers pale compared to the iPhone’s, “anybody that was expecting [iPhone-like sales figures] had their expectations too high,” and I’m inclined to agree.

After all, while the Droid isn’t the first Android phone on the market, it’s still essentially a first-generation device in the eyes of many consumers (a sizable portion of whom still aren’t sure what an “Android” phone is).

Also, don’t forget that the iPhone 3GS’s first-weekend total includes sales from eight different countries, while the Droid was only available here in the States.

Share this post
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • Reddit
  • Technorati
  • StumbleUpon
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • email

Tags: , ,